Ethel Fifield Brooks papers

This collection documents the personal and professional activities of Ethel Fifield Brooks (née Ethel Frances Fifield), an alumna of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). A class photograph documents her time at MIT. From 1900 to 1902, she was a lecturer at the Boston School of Housekeeping. Course catalogues, newspaper clippings, and a photograph document her work for the school. Correspondence in the collection includes letters received or kept by Brooks and largely concern home economics and the work of the School of Housekeeping and the Women’s Educational and Industrial Union (WEIU). Correspondents include Ellen Swallow Richards, first woman to attend and to teach at MIT; Henrietta I. Goodrich, secretary of the Women's Educational and Industrial Union; and Henrietta Wells Livermore, noted suffragette. Publications and newspaper clippings document her continued active involvement with home economics, including her work with the Home Economics Association of Yonkers, New York. The collection also includes membership cards for social groups that she was involved with in the vicinity of Rio Grande City, Texas.